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780 AM | 96.1 FM | Yours for Western AlaskaMon, 19 Mar 2018 20:46:08 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.459285469Kitchen Fire Evacuates Sixplex, Claims Dog of Ambulance Volunteer Tenant Out on a Callhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/10/28/kitchen-fire-evacuates-sixplex-claims-dog-of-ambulance-volunteer-tenant-out-on-a-call/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/10/28/kitchen-fire-evacuates-sixplex-claims-dog-of-ambulance-volunteer-tenant-out-on-a-call/#commentsWed, 28 Oct 2015 19:57:02 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=19247No one was injured in the kitchen fire smoldering in the home of a Nome ambulance department volunteer, but the intense heat and smoke killed his dog while he was out on a call.]]>

An apartment fire early Tuesday morning called Nome firefighters to the kitchen of a Belmont Point six-unit complex, arriving to a scene of intense heat and smoke but few flames in the home of a volunteer with Nome’s ambulance department who was out on a call.

No one was injured in the blaze, but the ambulance volunteer lost his dog to the smoke.

Nome fire chief Jim West, Jr., said the call came just after 3 a.m. Tuesday, reporting a haze and the smell of smoke at the Seppala Apartment complex. West said members of the Nome Volunteer Fire Department found heavy smoke but no one home at the second-floor apartment. Firefighters quickly evacuated the building as they located the source of the smoke: something burning on the stove in one of the units.

West said it was a close call.

“The lucky part about it, [the tenant] didn’t have a window that was cracked. The building was pretty tight, as far as air movement. So once it flashed over it kind of lost oxygen,” West said. “The apartment itself was full of smoke. So it lost oxygen, and the fire actually went out, and then when we made entry there was no visible flame or anything, it was just all hot. Very hot inside.”

A team of four firefighters entered the building and extinguished the heat. West said not much water was needed to control the scene. More firefighters came to assist—ten in all—to help push the smoke out the windows and cool the room down.

West said that’s when volunteers with Nome’s ambulance department also arrived and learned the fire was at the home of one of their own.

“He had just responded to a call, and just as he was bringing the patient in, the tone-out came, and he kind of knew that something could be up. The possibility that something could be on the stove, or something of that nature,” West said.

West said they were on the scene for about an hour and a half quelling the heat and smoke. They were already in the apartment and well at work when he said firefighters with NVFD found the man’s dog, a victim of the thick smoke that filled the room.

“Very sad to lose a pet,” West said, “but no one was hurt other than that.”

Only four people were in the building at the time of the fire. The Aurora Inn offered all tenants a room in the early morning hours of Tuesday, and for as long as they need until they can return home.

The apartment building itself is owned by Bering Straits Development Corporation. Jerald Brown with BSDC said, beyond the apartment where the fire took place, the damage to the other units is minimal. The goal is to have tenants moved back in by the end of the week.

Brown said it’s too early to estimate the cost to repair the damage in the one affected apartment, but he says it’ll need to be gutted and completely redone.

Nome Police Chief John Papasodora secured three more years as head of the city’s police department after a Friday meeting of the Nome City Council renewed his tenure. Also at the meeting, outgoing city manager Josie Bahnke outlined projects and goals for the city as she departs to head up the state Division of Elections in Juneau.

The four council members at the meeting voted unanimously to renew Chief Papasodora’s contract for another three years, with an annual salary of $115,000.

On the job since 2009, the chief said he’ll continue his focus on community policing.

“It’s measured in the way the community responds to the police department,” Chief Papasodora said during the meeting, addressing the council from the podium. “It’s evolving a relationship between the community and the police officers who are serving them, because the people can see we’re not just there to put handcuffs on them, and put them in jail; we want to make their lives better, we want to give them the opportunity to do better, we want to give them the opportunity to more or less modify their own behavior.”

With the department more fully staffed than it has been in years, Chief Papasodora delivered an assessment of NPD to the council, citing overall a “stable” police force. That leaves room for specialty programs, like school resources and a new K9 unit, but the chief said one of the loftier goals for the next three years will be working to integrate the police with the volunteer fire and ambulance departments.

“It makes sense to try to build a parent agency, the Department of Public Safety, where everyone maintains their identity and maintains their purpose,” Papasodora said, stressing there were no formal plans to consolidate the three departments.

“But [the goal would be] they get a better level of support and consistency, so that their jobs are easier. That’s the whole point in doing this. The people are the volunteer fire department, volunteer ambulance department. They give every day. If we can find a way to make their jobs easier and give something back, I think it’s to the benefit of everybody,” he added.

The first step toward any kind of consolidation, Papasodora added, would be to combine the administrative work for fire, ambulance, and police.

Outgoing city manager Josie Bahnke ended Friday’s meeting, with a broad assessment of city projects, everything from the future of the deep-draft port to the Richard Foster Building to maintaining the White Alice Towers.

Bahnke highlighted other concerns that ultimately fall to the city manager that she says the council and the city will have to reckon with in the coming years. She said formalizing the city’s approach to its cemetery should be a priority.

“Our office has been working on the more technical things, as well as helping families out and picking out burial plots and walking around and taking on that role,” she said.

“My recommendation was for the mayor to appoint an ad hoc cemetery committee. It’s kind of a bigger task than the planning commission can effectively take on,” she added.

Bahnke paused. “It needs to happen,” she said solemnly. “Our residents who are moving up there deserve it.”

Two members of Nome Rotary, as well as city staff, have volunteered to lead up the committee. Incoming city manager Tom Moran will officially be at the reins at tonight’s council meeting, overseeing an agenda approving a new city clerk and setting up the October city elections.

“I hate summer. My winter clothes and animal hats want to be liberated NOW.” This is what I told a friend as I suffered from heat stroke last summer. I daydreamed of snow and wind and of a frozen land up north, and guess what? I got it.

16 below Zero. First, This Girl is on Fire… then comes The Bleak Mid-Winter. I didn’t program this, I swear.

This is my first winter in Nome. Today, there were exactly four hours of daylight. It was 18 below (not negative, BELOW) but I hear it was 24 below when Lucus arrived at the studio. I wear at least two layers of clothing at all time and consume more tea and hot chocolate than should be legally allowed. I own my first heavy jacket, snow pants, and bunny boots. I love it.

It’s cold and dark today as Lucus and I host the KNOM Morning Show.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all hot cocoa and sitting by a fire. Every city or town has its problems, but winter presents unique challenges for life in rural Alaska. Right now, alcohol abuse and suicide are big issues here. And it’s hard on a lot of families, but there are also people who want to help.

What I like most about Nome is the amount of courage and love I see from seemingly average individuals going out of their way to help those in need. I see it in the volunteer ambulance department, in the schools, in the many organizations around town. At KNOM. I see how willing people are to lend an ear when you need to talk, provide comfort, support, or give you an extra hand when the heat in your house gives out. I see how willing people are to share their game, invite you into their home, share their stories.

KNOM Christmas Tree

Every day I see people trying to help people. They don’t do it out of guilt or because it’s the holiday season. They do it because they want to, and they do it year round.

Living in a bigger city I used to joke that what I liked most about my neighbors was that I expected them to be cold and suspicious of me and I would return the favor. Living in Nome, I am learning to do the opposite.

The KNOM Star.

Nome and KNOM are becoming my home. Walking down Front St and seeing the star on top of the FM transmitter from afar make me feel all happy and warm inside and fills me with hope. It sounds corny, I know, but it really does. I am filled with hope. I am forming amazing friendships and learning to appreciate what everyone must do for a city or village to not only survive, but flourish, despite whatever comes our way.